Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, proudly presents a free public Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration MLK DAY 2026: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY on Monday, January 19, from 11 AM – 4 PM at 5020 South Cornell Avenue. Eclectic programming for all ages blends live music, thought-provoking film, artmaking, and meditation, to highlight art as a vessel for collective memory, liberation, and joy, while reflecting on Dr. King’s profound impact on social justice and cultural movements. Registration is recommended at HydeParkArt.org.

“Chaos or Community” is drawn from Dr. King’s final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967). Written during the last years of his life, the book captures Dr. King’s most visionary and radical thinking. In it, he reflects on the progress and challenges of the Civil Rights Movement and asks whether society will continue down a path of chaos—marked by racism, poverty, and war—or choose community, a future grounded in justice, equity, and love.

Nearly sixty years later, Dr. King’s question reverberates with renewed urgency. Today people live in a time when the forces of division, greed, and dehumanization persist—where systems of race, class, and immigration continue to shape who is seen as deserving of dignity, safety, and belonging. The struggle for liberation is far from over. To choose community today means to confront these hierarchies directly—to dismantle the imperial and economic powers that privilege the few while exploiting the many, and to imagine a world rooted in care, reciprocity, and collective freedom. Art, in this context, becomes more than expression—it becomes a form of resistance, a language of possibility, and a testament to shared humanity. Creativity cultivates joy not as an escape from struggle but as a strategy for survival and transformation. This year’s celebration takes inspiration from Dr. King’s enduring call, transforming his question into a day of art, reflection, and action—a collective reminder that liberation is both a personal practice and a communal act of creation.

The free public programming is as follows:

11:00 – 11:30 AM | Meditation + Opening Ceremony

Camille Smith facilitates a grounding session of breath and stillness to open the day. This collective meditation honors rest as resistance and sets the tone for a day of reflection and renewal.

11:30 AM – 2:00 PM | Community Artmaking Activities

Malika Jackson leads a screen-printing session from 12:00 – 2:00 PM, for participants to print and take home a limited-edition design by Jackson celebrating unity, resilience, and collective creativity. From 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM, Rhonda Wheatley collaborates with community members to create “Ephemeral Mural,” a large-scale, mixed-media mural using recycled and found materials, andVeronica Casado Hernández leads a collage portrait workshop “Radical Dreams: The Collage of Us” for families and young artists to create portraits of friends, family, or pets using colorful, playful materials, in celebration of individuality, joy, and belonging.

12:00 - 12:30 PM | Exhibition Tour: Mutuality

The 2025 Center Program cohort of artists leads a guided tour of their exhibition Mutuality, exploring care, reciprocity, and interconnection in artistic practice.

1:00 – 1:45 PM | Performance by Amari Amai

I Heard The Voice is a performance in honor of King's distinct poetic voice that swelled the calmest streams and quelled the most ferocious despair. Using storytelling, dance, hymns, soundscapes and projection, Amai will take the audience on a journey through the 1968 West Side riots following King's assassination in hopes of landing on sweeter mountaintops of collective healing, release, and renewed joy.

1:45 – 2:15 PM | Music Performance by AACM

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) will present new works, creative music ensembles, and intergenerational performance that honors King’s enduring legacy through sound, reflection, and community engagement.

2:30 – 3:15  | The Treehouse Listening Party with Willow James

An intimate listening experience rooted in Afrofuturist principles of rest and dreaming. This special edition of The Treehouse centers on Dr. King’s late writings—his opposition to the Vietnam War, his rethinking of integration, and his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Guests are invited to bring snacks, tea, or simply their presence to rest and reflect together.

3:00 – 4:00 PM | "Making The Short Documentary" workshop

HPAC and Pentimenti Productions present a short film profiling the inaugural Resilience Arts Festival. A collaboration between the Mud Theatre Project and the Chicago Torture Justice Center held in Hyde Park in October, the four-day arts and theatre festival focused on the human experience of people impacted by the criminal legal system. The student-made film explores themes of incarceration, re-entry, and healing.

About Hyde Park Art Center

Hyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,500 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to over 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 250 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections.

For more information, please visit www.hydeparkart.org.